During a fluoroscopy procedure a cardiologist will direct circulating staff such as a nurse to “push a drug” to a patient. An intravenous (IV) pole holding the necessary medications normally sits at the head of a table holding the patient. The nurse must approach the IV pole to administer the drugs and therefore may receive a very large dose of scatter radiation if the doctor is taking an X-Ray while the nurse is at the IV pole. This may happen because the doctor is focused on the patient and the procedure rather than on a location of the nurse. More specifically, if the physician's foot is on a fluoroscope pedal while the nurse is at the IV pole, the nurse will receive a high dose of scatter radiation during a normal X-ray (3-5 seconds fluoroscopy time). Aside from the potentially adverse impact on staff members' health, government regulations limit lifetime exposure to radiation. Thus, unnecessary exposures to scatter radiation can result in premature removal of experienced staff from fluoroscopy procedure rooms where they are most needed.
Moreover, equipment clutter in a procedure room can become a serious problem, especially during emergency procedures. Some equipment simply gets in the way of staff during crowded room emergency situations and is often pushed out of the way, even equipment intended for staff safety. Also, due to continual repositioning, the needed equipment is rarely in proper position when needed, so it commonly goes unused during an emergency.
A system that can be readily attached to, for instance, existing IV poles while allowing adequate space for other medical devices attached to a pole would be very useful and is urgently needed in fluoroscopy procedure rooms. The needed solution would provide a radiation shield near ionizing radiation sources to reduce radiation exposure to circulating staff, which would also allow a cardiologist to focus on a case rather than on staff location during fluoroscopy. Also, the needed solution would reduce equipment clutter and related inventory cost.